Merton Beckwith-Smith

Major-General Merton Beckwith-Smith, (11 July 1890 – 11 November 1942) was a senior British Army officer during both the First and Second World Wars.

Early life and military career Beckwith-Smith was born on 11 July 1890 at 24 Walton Street, Chelsea to stockbroker Beckwith Smith and Georgina Butler Moore.

In August 1910 he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.

He served with the Guards throughout the First World War, eventually becoming a staff officer in the Guards Division. On 4 October 1914, while the 1st Guards Brigade was holding trenches opposite the German line at the River Aisne, Beckwith-Smith was ordered by Brigadier-General Charles FitzClarence to carry out a nighttime raid against a German position known as 'Fish Hook Trench'. This was the first British trench raid of the First World War. Beckwith-Smith was still just a lieutenant at the time and the raid was considered to be a striking success. On the front of the 1/Coldstream, just east of the Troyon factory road, the Germans had run out a sap, and it was decided to fill it in. At 8 P.M. a platoon of the battalion, led by Beckwith-Smith (who was wounded and subsequently received the Distinguished Service Order), crossing the hundred yards of No Man's Land, rushed the trench with the bayonet. The award of the DSO was reported in the Edinburgh Gazette on 13 November 1914,

Now a captain, Beckwith-Smith was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1917. In the same year Captain Beckwith-Smith was awarded the Military Cross.

Between the wars After the war Beckwith-Smith commanded the Officers' Training Corps at the University of Oxford. While he was commanding the Officers' Training Corps, the university conferred on him an honorary degree of MA. He then attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1921 to 1922.

The Times recorded Beckwith-Smith's appointment as Officer Commanding the Welsh Guards Regiment and Regimental District from 1 October 1934. In his capacity as Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Welsh Guards, Beckwith-Smith participated in the Royal Procession at the Trooping the Colour of 1936, and again the following year.

Beckwith-Smith was promoted to temporary brigadier in February 1938 and spent fourteen months serving in India in command of the Lahore Brigade.

When Lord Gort was ordered home and was replaced by Harold Alexander, Beckwith-Smith succeeded him in command of the 1st Division.

After he was evacuated to England, Beckwith-Smith was given command of the Territorial 18th Infantry Division, which he trained in preparation for duty overseas.

Singapore

In early 1942, after many weeks at sea, Beckwith-Smith's division was landed at Singapore. Japanese forces invaded Singapore Island on 8 February. Because of the defensive strategy implemented by the Allied commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, most of the British 18th Division saw little or no action. Percival surrendered all British and Commonwealth troops at Singapore on 15 February, including Beckwith-Smith and his division.

He was reported just prior to capture as being 'quite undisturbed by the calamity, continuing his duties even when the roof of his headquarters was burning over his head. A report in The Times reported that the official Japanese news agency said Colonel Robert Hoffman of the US Army was with him, along with other British generals, when he died. In 1946, the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) exhumed all the Taiwan prisoner of war remains and reburied them in the Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong.

Personal life Beckwith-Smith married Honor Dorothy Leigh on 14 March 1918 at St George's Church, Hanover Square in Westminster. He lived at the Manor House, Stratton Audley.